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DePaul Cancels Classes, Students Head to Quad

By Paul Biasco | March 5, 2013 1:43pm | Updated on March 5, 2013 4:41pm

LINCOLN PARK — DePaul University canceled all classes Tuesday as of 1 p.m. due to the snowstorm that began to pick up in intensity earlier this afternoon.

The school's student center on the Lincoln Park campus will remain open until 9 p.m. to provide students access to food, and the Ray Meyer Fitness and Recreation Center will also remain open until 9 p.m.

Some students took the news as a reason to get out on the quad to take their minds off midterms, which are two weeks away.

"I woke up and said 'It's going to be a great day,'" said Nikko Koruna, who built a "throne" on the quad with his classmates. The students decided to drop down to their boxers for photos.

"We were just like, let's make a little throne over here, and someone said take off your shirts, so we did," Koruna said.

All scheduled events and programs for Tuesday evening were canceled, but the school expected to be open Wednesday morning for business as usual unless an alert is sent out.

For freshman Alex Bordelon, who hails from Connecticut, the chance to get out in the snow was one he couldn't pass up.

"Why not," he said while being pelted by a snowball on the quad. "I haven't done this in years."

Employees of the school headed home at 2 p.m., with the exception of "essential personnel," according to an announcement on the school's website.

It is up to faculty members to decide how missed classes or assignments are made up, according to Carol Hughes, a spokeswoman for the university.

The school has campuses in Lincoln Park and the Loop as well as three suburban campuses in Naperville, Oak Forest and O'Hare.

The last time the school canceled classes due to weather was during the massive blizzard of 2011, which stranded at least 900 cars on Lake Shore Drive and dumped more than 20 inches of snow on the area.